Don’t Doubt Me: The Left Politicizes Everything — Including Football

RUSH: Here’s Annette in Highland, Illinois, great to have you on the program, and welcome. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you for having my call today. I’m so excited to get through.

RUSH: Thank you. Glad you got through yourself.

CALLER: I tried a couple of times to call when you’re talking about football because I’m gonna give you some quick background on myself before I make the comment because people are gonna jump to conclusions about why I feel this way. I’m 44, I’m a PE teacher, I’m happily married, love my mother, but I’m really tired of the feminist movement messing with football. And this is why I think this is happening, because MMA, they beat each other in the head. Hockey, you know, there are a lot of injuries. But several years ago they started doing the breast cancer awareness thing. Now, the whole month of October, I have to watch the football games with everybody in pink. Now, I think it’s a good cause, but I think they need to give that money to research. And people say I’m cold-hearted, but my mom died of breast cancer.

CALLER: Any money that they use to produce the pink tennis shoes and pink towels and all that stuff for breast cancer awareness.

RUSH: Oh. Oh. Oh.

CALLER: They need to give that to research, all of that money, because for October, you know, I’m not cold-hearted. My mom died of breast cancer when I was 14. She battled it for two years. I took care of her. But I don’t want to think about breast cancer when I’m watching football. My mom was not a survivor. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to see women down on the field.

RUSH: They say that they need to spread awareness and you take a popular event like the National Football League and have pink shoes, pink shoelace, pink towels, people wonder, “What the hell is this? Oh, it’s breast cancer awareness. Oh, okay.” They want more people to be aware of it.

CALLER: Well, and I think there are other avenues, but the majority of people who get breast cancer are women. So why don’t they do it on The View all month, why don’t they wear pink? Or if they’re gonna do that with the NFL, why doesn’t The View have prostate cancer awareness and wear their ribbon color? Why not testicular cancer awareness? I’m really frustrated with —

RUSH: Would it be sexist to point out that more men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer?

CALLER: Yeah, probably.

RUSH: See, I think the answer to your question is, well, you want to spread awareness to a male audience, precisely because it’s assumed that women are already aware.

CALLER: Right. But what I’m saying is, it’s the venue in which they’re doing it. I don’t have a problem with it. It’s the venue in which they’re doing it. And it’s not just that; I have DirecTV. I have NFL Ticket. So I watch a lot of games.

RUSH: Well, Annette —

CALLER: And I can’t tell you the last —

RUSH: If I may, if I may translate for you, I think I know what really bothers you about it.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: You’re a PE teacher, you like sports, you watch football on Sunday afternoon and you don’t want to be preached to about politics. That’s what you think it is. Everybody knows that these things have political attachments to them, and here you are watching football, and the month of October you can’t escape the pink stuff when you watch the NFL, and what you’re really objecting to is, look I’m watching this to get away from real life for three or four hours, do you have to keep preaching politics to me when I’m watching football. Isn’t that what it really is?

CALLER: That’s absolutely right. It’s an escape. I watch a lot of football and I can’t tell you the last time I saw a male reporter doing an on-field interview. They’re always females doing on-field interviews. And then, you know, I played football with my class, high school football boys, and I got injured in January. I’m 44 years old, and I got injured, and I’m still struggling through the injury. It was a right hand injury. And everybody is like, “What are you doing?” Well, I like the game, I love the game, and I’m really upset with players who I have met personally some of them at training camps who are coming out saying things that are gonna hurt the game. I knew the risk when I went in and played in January, and I’d do it again because I love football. And so I mean I’m all around upset about what’s going on with the NFL right now. All around upset.

RUSH: I think what you’ve swerved into here is that this is a political movement. The danger of the concussions, it’s all perceived… Well, it’s not yet. It’s not yet perceived as what it is. That’s where I am light years ahead, and I don’t say this in a braggadocios way. Please don’t misunderstand. Where I’m light years ahead is I understand who is behind this and what their objectives are. I just got an e-mail from a sports reporter (I’m not gonna mention his name) who heard me talk about this and wants to correct me on a few things.

I ought to read this to you. He’s exactly right in everything he says, but in my humble opinion, he’s missing the point about what’s going on. And that is that this is politics. The left politicizes everything. And in everything they do, there’s a political objective or there’s a political motivation. So you ask, “Okay, well, what’s the political motivation in harping on concussions, Rush? I mean, that’s absurd.” No, it isn’t, if you understand liberals who are trying to take the risk out of life, all risk.

They are seeking perfection; they are seeking utopia.

Why do you think you have this idiot mayor in New York saying, “Don’t eat trans fats or salt”? It’s all oriented under this false premise that if we do it right, nobody will ever get sick. If we do it right, we might get to the point nobody will die! It’s absurd, folks. These people are flat-out dangerously absurd. But I’m glad you called because the whole impetus that is now behind this notion that football is killing its players and can’t be fixed is political, and this is where I am light years ahead.

People, A, don’t see it; B, don’t want to. And if you don’t understand people ideologically, which is…

Folks, can I just give you another illustration? I know you in this audience get it. But on January 16th, 2009, I said, “I hope he fails.” I knew that exactly this was gonna happen to our economy. I knew ’cause I know who liberals are. I knew this guy. I knew what he wanted to do. I knew what his intentions were. I knew he had a chip on his shoulder about this county. I know that he doesn’t like it as founded. I know how he’s been taught. I know how he’s been educated. I know how he’s been raised.

I did not want this to happen.

That’s why I said, “I hope he fails.”

But back then, nobody was looking at things that way. “Oh, no, it’s history in the making! It’s our first black president.”

This guy was anything but what I was telling people he was. He was Mr. Unifier! He was post-racial. There wasn’t gonna be any more racism. There wasn’t gonna be any more political divide. Enough people really bought that, because they don’t look at things ideologically or people ideologically like I do. I can see it when I talk to people personally about this. I can spot instantly a facial expression when somebody thinks I’m a raving lunatic, when I make a prediction or explain to them why something’s happening in a political sense. Because they don’t see it, don’t want to see it, and don’t have (right now) the ability to. Thanks for the call, Annette.

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RUSH: If you’ll just stop and think about it, you’ll know I’m right when I tell you that everything is politics to the left. Everything. There’s not one thing in our culture or lives that they do not politicize. Now, where would this country be…? Stick with me here for a second, folks. Where would this country be without contact sports? Where would we be without, say, the Second Amendment or motorcycles? Pick anything. This is not exclusively about football. It’s not self-contained and it’s not unique.

It isn’t just about football. Football is just the latest iteration of what the left is trying to do. In New York, it’s being done with trans fats and 16-ounce sodas. Before that, it was done with smoking and cigarettes, tobacco and all that. They never ban what produces revenue. In fact, they fund health care programs off of it. But they preach, they proselytize, and they infuse guilt — which is what’s gonna happen here. What this is all intended to do is to destroy individual choice, free will.

This is another opportunity to empower government to get involved in anything and everything. If you are going to proclaim — I don’t care who you are — that football’s broken, it’s killing its players, for crying out loud! That’s a hell of a charge. “Football’s killing its players and it can’t be fixed.” Well, what’s called for? (Meryl Streep impression) “Somebody must do something!” Remember Meryl Streep and Alar? “What are we doing to our children? Huh? Huh?” She was on 60 Minutes.

“What are we doing to our children? We’re poisoning our children!” No, we’re not. Farmers put stuff on there because it makes the apples look better in the grocery store. It’s not a poison. It’s called Alar. No, we had a problem! We need government to come in and fix it. Now we have a problem. Football is killing its players. And in certain places, coaches are molesting the players. (Gasp!) We’ve got to do something.

We had a story the week before last. A woman who is a weird sex expert (according to her resume) wrote a piece in the New York Times actually suggesting that pedophilia in football is connected to brain trauma in kids who play the game early in life. Don’t doubt me about what’s happening here. See, I have the ability to see it, because I’m a student. I see how they politicize everything. I’ve seen it my whole life, and I know that they do politicize everything. That’s how I look at ’em.

So if I look at a bunch of people not liking the NFL and they’re leftists, I know it’s political.

Okay. It’s very simple after that.

What do liberals believe?

“Big government, fixing problems, eliminating danger! Ostensibly. Eliminating risk, eliminating death, eliminating injury, eliminating pain, eliminating suffering. Yes! In the name of equality and utopia and all that.” So this is just the latest effort to get government involved in everything. You can’t eat what you want now. You can’t play what you want. You can’t drive what you want. You can’t protect yourself with your gun. George Will fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Nothing to be fixed in football? Nothing? Really? (sigh)

I should just call myself the lone wolf. ‘Cause that’s what I’m gonna be on this for about ten years.

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RUSH: By the way, folks, 14% more women die of breast cancer than do men of prostate cancer, but more men get prostate cancer. That’s the truth. I had it a little backwards. I had it half right, and I want to get it all the way right.

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RUSH: Look, folks, very simply, the football stuff, the NFL ban, all that, I just cherish freedom. I cherish liberty. It’s under assault. That’s what’s under assault. We can’t eat what we want. Well, there’s an attack on it. Even this Chick-fil-A thing was political. You know, when Rahm Emanuel and the mayor of Boston stand up and say, “Chick-fil-A doesn’t represent Chicago.” It’s a political statement, and it’s designed to rally the base. Dan Cathy, the head honcho of Chick-fil-A, he’s not making a political statement when he talks about the values the company believes in. It gets interpreted that way because the left has politicized gay marriage and so forth. So they think it’s a threat and now Christianity has to be banned. And that’s where this is all headed. All this stuff at Chick-fil-A, the target is Christianity, not Chick-fil-A.

The target is freedom of religion, Obama and Obamacare. The target is always freedom when we’re talking about liberals, the target is always freedom. That has to give, as the government gets bigger, that’s not even arguable. What reason is there is for government to get bigger if not to police things, including thought? Fix things, police things, administer things, regulate things, all of that, you might not want to call it an assault, but it’s all aimed at freedom, pure and simple. And any activity that rewards freedom, any activity that freedom plays a profound role in, particularly something that’s successful or good is an enemy.

You might laugh at this. You go to any major football game in college, professional level, national anthem, American flags everywhere, flyovers of the American jets, I guarantee you that rubs them wrong. I guarantee you. They get agitated by it. I’m talking about liberals and the left. They get irritated at wanton displays of patriotism. What was it the Boston Globe told us, the Fourth of July is for Republicans? Showing the flag is for Republicans. They politicize everything. Frankly, you know, I’m not speaking to you as a football fan on all this. I’m talking to you as a very credible, accredited, competent, cultural and political analyst; and I’m telling you what this is.

They want to tell us what we can and can’t eat. They want to tell us where and how we can and can’t play. They want to tell us what we can and cannot drive. They will eventually tell us where we can and cannot go. They do not want us to be able to protect ourselves if we use guns for that purpose. This is the latest manifestation of their attempt to grow government, which has a by-product, and that is the loss of freedom, pure and simple. That’s what alarms me, because I believe in freedom. We all do. It’s something I think that is taken for granted in terms of the role freedom plays in the greatness of this nation as founded. ‘Cause we’re born to it, we just assume it.

You and I are very adept at recognizing when it is threatened. It was US News & World Report, and it was July 20th of last year. “US Flag Only Boosts GOP.” That’s the story. “Just a brief exposure to an image of the American flag shifts voters, even Democrats, to Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior even though most donÂ’t believe it will impact their politics, according to a new two-year study just published in the scholarly Psychological Science.” And this two-year study revealed, “A single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participantsÂ’ Republican voting intentions.” Patriotism. That’s why this stuff alarms me. Football can’t be fixed. It’s killing the players, it can’t be fixed. Right.

Unwitting people who love the game, who make their living from the game, are gonna get bamboozled by this. And these unwitting people are gonna end up carrying the water for the people who want to ultimately have the game regulated by government. They’re gonna think that’s a good thing. Liberal sports reporters are ultimately gonna think it’s a wonderful thing. The thing is, I never had a doubt once this all started that it was gonna happen. I am stunned at how rapidly it’s gaining momentum.

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RUSH: This is Dave in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I’m glad you waited, and it’s great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: And you were talking about the professional football and how it’s being attacked, and one gentleman called and said that he didn’t see that percolating down to the rest of society because of college football. And I have to argue that point because of what’s going on at Penn State and what the NCAA did to Penn State because one goofball attacked some young kids. And it just seems that —

RUSH: Well, wait a second. That’s not exactly correct. The goofball, as you say, attacked the kids, and apparently the regime at Penn State didn’t do anything about it. They knew about it and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening or hoped it would go away. Now, I do think that you have a point if you say that the NCAA, whatever it is, really kind of went long here —

CALLER: Well, they sure did.

RUSH: — to get his name out there, but still, it wasn’t just Sandusky. It was that the president of the university, Paterno. If I may say so, the one thing about this that’s shocked me, Dave, is that nobody is questioning the Freeh Report. The Freeh Report came out, and not a soul — Paterno’s dead and can’t react to it. My question, what if something in there is wrong? Everyone just accepted it in full with no question. I know they want to get rid of the issue. I know they want to just move on from it, but wow. This thing came down the pike, and whatever’s in that Freeh Report ends up as gospel.

CALLER: I can see the college football season this year, and every ESPN show is gonna have something about Penn State, and something about problems with football programs that are going to kind of reverberate —

RUSH: Well, you’re right about the way it’s gonna be covered. This poor coach, this Bill O’Brien guy, the new head coach, what does he sell? The players that he recruits can’t go to a bowl game for four years. How many of the players showing up are gonna be motivated, “You have a chance to restore Penn State.” That’s what these guys are there for. These guys are there ’cause it’s Linebacker U, chance to go to a bowl game and get to the NFL. Of course that may not be an option much longer. But, anyway, they were so eager for this thing to go away, that whatever was in the Freeh Report was gospel, nobody challenged it, it’s just incredible. Louis Freeh’s got a fine reputation, don’t misunderstand. I’m just saying in the normal ebb and flow of things there are always some questions.

Anyway, this whole football thing, folks, I know I’m a lone wolf on this, ’cause a lot of people don’t want to have to see politics in everything. But I’m telling you, if you’re gonna follow politics, and if you’re gonna follow liberalism, to be prepared for it, you’re gonna have to admit to yourself that everything they do is politicized. Everything they do is motivated by their desire for political victory, whether it’s this football stuff, whether it’s Chick-fil-A, whether it’s the mayor telling you you can’t eat trans fat, it’s all politics. And people hate politics, so they don’t want to look at it that way, and therefore they’re not ever gonna understand the full truth in terms of the motivation behind some of these cultural changes.

You know, a lot of people on the left hate football ’cause it’s old America. It’s merit based, masculine, testosterone culture. That’s unacceptable anymore. That’s the old America. That’s Brute Force America. Liberals hate male strength. Liberals do not like male strength at all. They don’t like the use of force unless it’s for their own ends. They love the military when they run it, but at no other time. They’re a bunch of metrosexuals. Metrosexual culture is pacifist. That’s why metrosexuals are liberals that rely on government force to perpetrate their agenda. They don’t do it themselves. Government force takes the place of powerful men. These are the people that have this animus now for football, ’cause it’s injury prone and people get concussions.